Summer Cooking

I will confess that summer is my least favorite season. I usually just do my best to ignore summer and go to the beach whenever I can to get away from the heat. But I have to admit I've been really enjoying some things so far this summer: the gardenias have been blooming - I brought a few indoors and they smell great. The flowers in the garden are blooming. The storms that roll in in the afternoon and sometimes cool things off. I have extra appreciation for the huge selection of delicious fresh fruits and veggies, from the blueberries we've picked at a local farm to the fresh corn, tomatoes, etc. we've been having.

I found some yellow pear tomatoes at the farmer's market recently (our yellow pear tomato plant unfortunately died because of all the rain we got earlier in the season) and made a simple tossed salad with them, adding some mozzarella, a little fresh purple basil and parsley from the herb garden, a tiny bit of sea salt, and a little bit of good quality extra virgin olive oil and balsamic - it turned out so good!!!!
I can't wait to go to the farmer's market Saturday morning and see what we can find! :)

So I may not be happy about the heat but at least there is lots of yummy food in the kitchen.

A Better Pound Cake

So after I raved about that sour cream pound cake (quite a deviation from my usual whole grain lower fat recipes) a friend mentioned that there was a recipe in a magazine with a similar recipe but with a few changes. So I (in the name of scientific research, mind you!) baked the new recipe, which swaps the sour cream for cream cheese and makes a few more changes. It turned out even better, so I looked for it online and I'm sharing the link. Enjoy!

Sour Cream Pound Cake

I baked lemon sour cream pound cake last evening. After looking at five different recipes, I sheepishly realized they are pretty basic and rather similar. I combined a few recipes to make it lemon flavored. They turned out delicious!!! Here's my recipe:

Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake
3 cups unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups granulated sugar
2 sticks butter (room temperature)
6 eggs (room temperature)
1 cup sour cream (room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Grated zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1/2 lemon (I should have added more, but I wasn't sure how it'd affect consistency)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease (generously to prevent sticking) muffin tins or bundt or 10" tube pan.
Sift flour and baking soda together. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar at medium high speed using mixer.
Beat eggs in one at a time using low speed. Add sour cream, vanilla, and lemon zest.
Incorporate flour and baking soda while mixing at medium low speed until smooth. Try not to overmix.
Pour into pans. Bake about 30 minutes for cupcakes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool for about 5 minutes on rack, then loosen from tins and let cool. If using bundt/tube pan bake for about 1 1/4 hours, let sit on rack for about 10 minutes before turning out to cool.

Makes 12 servings (520 calories ea.), I got about 20 cupcakes (about 310 calories each - approximation in calorie count is because I got 18 plus 12 mini cupcakes).
I might make a glaze with the remaining lemon juice and some sugar to add next time, but I was pleased with the buttery flavor, light crumb, and texture, though the lemon turned out to be more like a hint of lemon... gee, I'll have to try a few more just to make sure ;D My favorite part (and one of the reasons for using muffin tins) are the crispy bits around the edges of the tops. Yummy!!!

Mini Cheesecake Brownies

I saw these online and had to try them. I made a few modifications and baked them in mini muffin pan to control portion size. They were delicious!

Sour Cream Apple Pie

I have been wanting to try making a sour cream apple pie for a while (how time flies!) and finally got the time to try it. It will become part of our holiday recipes from here on out! Creamy and tangy, with the apples still crisp, not too sweet. I cut back on the amount of sugar in the original recipe and substituted low fat sour cream. I also realized I do not own a pie dish, so I used a store bought crust until I remedy that situation. I used five large apples and it was piled really high going into the oven but got to a more reasonable level after it was done. Unfortunately it's not the best photo, but the pie was delicious!!!